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ADIA to invest $1bn in Indian agrochemicals business - report

ADIA has become increasingly active in India since late 2017.

UPL Corporation is the world’s second-largest manufacture of post-patent agrochemicals.

By Bernd Debusmann Jr

Tue 10 Jul 2018 10:50 AM

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) will invest $1 billion to acquire a 20 percent stake in UPL Corporation, the Mauritius-based arm of India-listed agrochemicals business UPL Ltd, according to Indian media reports.

According to a report in India’s Economic Times, ADIA will provide $1 billion in equity funding, which will be used as a vehicle that the UPL will use to acquire Platform Speciality Product Corp’s agricultural pesticides business, Arysta Life-Science for $4.3 billion.

The report – citing anonymous sources aware of the plane – said the remaining $3.3 billion will organised from Asian and European banks.

In March, UPL Corporation raised $300 million in dollar-denominated bonds.

The company is the world’s second-largest manufacture of post-patent agrochemicals.

In June, Platform – of which Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management has a 14 percent stake – said it had entered exclusive negotiations on a potential sale of Arysta, which employs about 3,000 people and reportedly accounted for 50 percent of Platform’s $3.8 billion in sales last year.

ADIA declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Arabian Business.

UPL, which was earlier known as United Phosphorus Ltd, has made over 25 acquisitions in two decades. According to the Economic Times, if the Arysta deal goes through, UPL will become the world’s fifth largest crop-protection company.

In December, ADIA was announced as the primary investor in a new affordable housing fund in India. A month later, Indian media reported that ADIA was hiring a new country head and plans to set up an office in India as part of expansion efforts in the country.

Earlier in 2017, ADIA signed a $1 billion investment agreement with India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, becoming the first institutional investor in its master fund and shareholder in its investment management company, National Investment and Infrastructure Ltd.

In the infrastructure sector, ADIA owns minority states in Indian renewable energy producer ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd., clean energy company Greenko Energy Holdings, and Infrastructure Pte Ltd, a road platform formed by I Squared Capital and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp.